The FITNESS 2009 Healthy Food Awards

The Healthiest Foods in Your Grocery Store

Use this guide to find the tastiest, healthiest packaged foods in your grocery store. Get the handy printable shopping list on the next page!

How We Choose 'Em...

Four of the best nutritionists in the country -- all FITNESS advisory board members -- created healthy criteria for each category (such as the number of calories and grams of fat each food should contain; that deli meats be low in sodium, breads and cereals high in fiber, and so on). The top three to five brands of each food that met these stringent standards were taste-tested by dozens of staffers throughout our company. (Only nationally available products qualified.)

Our nutrition experts: Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association in Chicago; Leslie Bonci, RD, director of sports nutrition at the Center for Sports Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; Kathy McManus, RD, director of nutrition at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston; Lisa Young, PhD, RD, adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University and author of The Portion Teller Plan